Cape Lookout National Seashore offers a fully protected and beautiful anchorage surrounded by sandy beaches that we could watch but not touch, because we hadn’t formally checked into the States. Not that we had much energy to deal with the dinghy anyway, after four days at sea, so in a way having such restriction was a blessing, since we could fully focus on resting. Which we did for 24 hours. And we did it so well that—I’m now realizing—I have not a single picture of that place.
We called Customs and Border Protection the next day. After getting chastised for not immediately reporting our arrival, we were instructed to bring the boat to either Morehead City or Beaufort and call again. We chose the cozier Beaufort where an immigration agent and a customs official, both very friendly, boarded Ñandú. The immigration guy stamped our passports, and the customs guy focused mostly on food, including Oliver’s. His verdict was that an apple and a dozen eggs were not allowed into the country. However, he wasn’t very keen on carrying those items to his office for incineration, so on his suggestion we ate the apple and boiled the eggs, which made everyone happy.
After Beaufort, it was back to something I didn’t miss at all: the Intracoastal Waterway and all its bridges.
Our Bahamian eggs were all imported from Ohio….so were they concerned about getting their own eggs back?
So many kinky jokes come to mind after reading your comment 🙂 Seriously though, the officer was concerned about US styrofoam boxes being reused to hold Bahamian eggs. Unfortunately we had almost a dozen of illegal eggs that had to be boiled. They became our main staple for several days (a fact that I’d gladly forget)